Female entrepreneurial activity in Italy is still mostly concentrated in service activities: about one out of three companies in this sector is run by women, with percentages reaching 42,2% in education and 33% in business rental and travel agencies. Conversely, the presence of female entrepreneurs is still low in manufacturing activities.
Between 2009 and 2013, the presence of women in entrepreneurship remained stable, but this is due to the strong growth of companies managed by foreigners, which with +18% compensated for the decline in companies managed by Italians. The most active during the period were Chinese female entrepreneurs, who at the end of 2013 with 15 companies managed 17,4% of foreign female enterprises. Followed by Romanians and Moroccans. According to Unioncamere, in most cases the women who started a new business in 2013 are young and educated: six out of ten are under 40, and about 25% are under 30. The level of education of new female entrepreneurs is on average high: about 21% have a degree (against 16% of new male entrepreneurs), while 46,7% have a high school diploma, a percentage that stops at 44,7 in the case some men.
In most cases (18,8%) women entrepreneurs come from a previous experience that saw them employed or executive in another company, but a substantial portion comes from housework (13,4%) and from unemployment (16,1%).
